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What the Dickens? A Klingon Christmas Carol

Performer Kevin Alves is reflected in a mirror as he puts on make-up for a performance in "A Klingon Christmas Carol" in Chicago. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Young

A Christmas Carol is going where no Dickens story has gone before - with the help of a cast of Klingons.

An annual adaptation of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol is being performed in Chicago in the language created more than 30 years ago for the "Star Trek" race of long-haired warriors.

Performer Wyatt Weber puts on make-up for a performance in "A Klingon Christmas Carol" in Chicago. Credit: REUTERS/Jim Young

The play is being staged at the Raven Theatre in Chicago with English subtitles.

Despite a tiny vocabulary of just 2,000 to 3,000 words, Klingon is the most spoken fictional language in the world, according to Guinness World Records. And last month saw a Swedish couple tie the knot in a Klingon wedding ceremony at London's "Star Trek" convention.

The synopsis states: "Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate? Performed in the Original Klingon with English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology."